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Era: New Era

Bowman has the population located in one or more dwarf planets or planetesimals in a co-orbital position, an asteroid belt. The system has a population between 10,000 and 10 million, lacking the industrial base to be completely self-supporting. It is a client state of Regency of Deneb in the Plankwell Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector. This world contains a Scout Base, capable of handling Scout Service starships and personnel.

The Bowman system is home to one of the most extensive planetoid belts ever discovered. The planetoid belt, known imaginatively as The Bowman Belt, occupies the equivalent of five planets’ worth of orbits in one contiguous belt. The Bowman Belt is home to an unknown number of Belter communities as well as other less salubrious types – pirates, renegade Sword Worlders and similar no-goodniks.

Koenig’s Rock is in the middle of the belt and is home to a settlement built into the centre of the asteroid. It has a permanent population of around 800, while the belt is thought to have around 3000 people in it in total. Koenig’s Rock is where most of the independent Belters go to sell their cargos and restock with supplies as well as to relax and chew the fat with their compatriots. The main offices of the various companies and the supporting infrastructure are based in the Rock, which has the atmosphere of a frontier or boomtown. Fist fights are frequent, as is drunkenness and debauchery. On the other hand, killings are rare because justice is informal and swift.

The only actual planet in the system is the gas giant Bowman Prime, whose moons are designated by Greek letters. Bowman Prime’s major satellites are Gamma, Epsilon and Zeta, and its minor satellites are Alpha, Beta, Delta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda and Mu. Alpha is home to a small IISS base and also to Garrison Starport. It has a total population of around 3000 people. Epsilon is the site of an archaeological expedition to record the remains of a 2,000 year old Darrian outpost. Bowman Prime also has a spectacular ring system that is occasionally mined for ice.

There are three space stations in system. Prometheus and Epimetheus are situated in Alpha’s Trojan points and are owned and operated by Ling-Standard Products (LSP), a major mining corporation with fingers in a lot of pies. Bifrost is located near the outer edge of Bowman Prime’s ring system and is used as a base for mining the rings.

The leading and trailing Trojan points of Bowman Prime also contain asteroid clusters. The leading Trojan is known as Jarlsson’s Doom, while the trailing Trojan is owned and operated by LSP, which has a large base of approximately 2000 people on the asteroid, Tygalfsson. The Law Level on Tygalfsson is 4, unlike the rest of the system.

The system is administered by the Imperium as a client state, but LSP put in an application to take over administration in 1109. This application has not yet been resolved, largely because of the Fifth Frontier War. If LSP do take over then they will effectively control the system and the belters will have to sell all of their finds to LSP, probably at rock bottom prices. This assumes that LSP permits any independent operations in the system. It seems likely that there will be trouble if LSP does take over.

Repeated travails with Ling-Standard Products led to the formation of a government on Koenig's Rock in 1142. The new government is an effective participatory state, as the population take turns in the local virtual parliament according to a rotating assignment system. Because of the system's scattered settlements, most government is by long range video conferencing. Suffrage is dispensed by residential registration, which obligates an immigrant to staying at least two years in system in order to fully enjoy their rights.